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Nearly two months after a brutal attack at a Metro station, the transit agency is now trying to explain why it didn't immediately notify the public about the crime.

One of the attacks just now coming to light is the rape and carjacking of a woman at the Largo Town Center station on Feb. 5. The suspect, Jonathan David Duffy, 19, has been charged in the attack. He allegedly threatened the woman with a gun, took her Honda Accord, and raped her, according to Metro and the Washington Post. Metro did not release the information on the attack.

On Friday, the head of the transit agency's board said he understood the information was withheld to help out the investigation."I am told that because [Metro Transit Police] were following leads and thought they were going to be able to arrest the [suspect], they felt it was better to keep the information to themselves," said Metro Board Chairman Peter Benjamin.

Metro Transit Police found the stolen car six days after the attack, parked back in the Largo Town Center garage. They arrested Duffy, who was with a 13-year-old girl at the time. Duffy was subsequently charged for raping and kidnapping that girl, according to charging documents.

Although there probably weren't any further concerns that public knowledge might compromise the case after that point, Metro still failed to put out the news of the incidents. Metro officials said they wrote a press release, but it was never sent out because the agency was distracted by the blizzards at the time.

Benjamin says he's asked Metro's chief of police to look at its own policies, and see how all local police departments handle reporting serious crimes like rape to the public.